The Human Among Wolves

SIENNA

My whole life has been hard. I have no purpose. I just let things happen, day after day. I serve my mom’s family and the pack because they blame me for everything my mother did.

My mom was the daughter of the old alpha. She was treated like a princess. Then at sixteen, she went to the city to visit relatives and fell in love with a human man. She ran away with him. Her father, the old alpha, disowned her completely. He said he only had one child now- his son, who took his place as the alpha of the pack. 

Two years later, my mom came back but this time, with me. She left me on my grandmother’s doorstep with a letter that only had my name and her name. No explanation. Nothing. She disappeared again.

Since then, I’ve lived here with them. I get no education. No nice things. I never asked for any anyway. But I’m not loved. They treat me like trash.

I have been abused but not physically. They never hit me. My grandfather had forbade anyone to touch me and others also said things like, “Who would want to touch something so disgusting?” 

They called me names. They blamed me for my mom’s mistakes. They say I’m the mistake of hers. I have been suffering because of what my mother did and somewhere, I hate her for leaving me here. Why did she throw me away? What went so wrong that she couldn’t keep me?

My name is Sienna. And I don't know my father’s name nor anything. I’m seventeen. I live in the Dark Moon Pack, but I don’t belong here.

I don’t have a wolf. Despite being the daughter of a wolf, I had nothing. No wolf, No shifting, no senses, no traits. The elders of the pack  checked everything through their old knowledge, prophecies, all of it but still nothing. So they call me a dirty human among wolves.

I survived. That’s all. 

When I make a mistake, I get punished. They starve me sometimes. Once they threw me in front of hungry dogs to scare me. It worked. I had nightmares for months. I couldn’t sleep properly.

I don’t know my father. Not his name, not anything. Just that he was human.

And that's my life. No future. No hope. Just getting through each day in this pack that hates me for being born. 

Get to work, sienna or else you’ll be punished. 

I was cleaning the windows like I do every day. My hands moved on their own. I wiped, rinsed the cloth and wiped again. The house had to be spotless. After this, I still had to sweep the floors, wash the dishes from breakfast, cook lunch, water the plants in the back and fold the laundry. 

Everything had to be done fast and perfect, or someone would notice and I’d pay for it later. A tired sigh escaped my lips as I focused on the window, trying to erase every dirty spot. 

That’s how I got through the hours and mostly that's how my whole day passed. But then I looked outside for a second, just to check the glass, and I saw them. Three girls from the pack, maybe my age or a little older. 

They were walking together, laughing and holding books against their chests. School books. They looked so free. No one yelling at them to hurry up. No one glaring because they existed.

I felt it sharp in my chest. Envy. Real envy. I wanted that too. To have a normal life. To carry books, to learn things and to walk around without feeling like I was in the way. To have friends who actually wanted to talk to me. 

I have been here for almost seventeen years and I didn’t have any friends here. No one wants to be seen with the dirty human girl. The one who ruined everything just by being born.

I realized I was staring too long because my cloth stopped moving.“Sienna!” All of a sudden, I heard a tiny, high-pitched squeal that pulled me back. I smiled before I even looked. Pico.

Pico was a tiny bunny that had wings. Isn’t that unreal? When I opened my eyes at my grandmother’s door, I had found pico always with me. He was always there growing up with me. 

It was like he was my guardian angel but were angels supposed to be … bunnies? I don't know but .. the thing was … only I could see pico and no other person. 

He zoomed toward me from the side of the house, his little wings flapped fast but not quite right. Dark blue fur, sparkling blue wings that glowed soft white when the moon hit them at night. He was so small he could fit in my palm. Beautiful in a way nothing else here ever was.

I turned to look at him and watched as he tried to land on my shoulder like usual, but he misjudged and crashed straight into my face. “Ouch- ” I dropped the cloth fast and cupped my hands around him before he could fall. He tumbled right into my palms and his legs kicked a little.

“Pico,” I half laughed and half worried. “You okay?” He shook his head like he was 

shaking off dust, big round button eyes blinking up at me. “Why are you still working?”

“It’s the usual work I do, Pico.”

He shook his head harder and his ears flopped. “No! Everyone’s busy preparing for Alpha Asher and Beta Kael. They’re coming back tomorrow. Why don’t we do something too?”

Alpha Asher was my cousin, my uncle’s son and the current alpha who had been gone a month on some hunt with his beta. The whole pack was excited. Decorations, food, banners. Everyone acted like it was a holiday.

I sighed and glanced back at the window. The girls were gone now. “Why do we have to do something for them? It’s not like me and my cousin share a good relationship.”

Asher never treated me like he treated his sisters. Never treated me good, never cared for me But he also never called me names or made me do extra punishments. He just… ignored me completely. Like I wasn’t even there. I was okay with that. It was better than hate…. I guess.

Pico tilted his head. “I’m not talking about Alpha Asher.” I looked down at him. “Then who?” My eyebrows furrowed. “Beta Kael,” he said, like it was obvious. His little wings gave a tiny flutter.

I blinked at Pico in confusion and disbelief. Kael. Asher’s beta. The one who always stood quietly behind him. Tall, serious, dark hair, eyes that never smiled. 

I’d seen him plenty of times growing up, but he’d never spoken to me. Not once. Well, why would Pico even mention him?

I lifted Pico closer to my face. My eyebrows scrunched together. “What about Beta Kael?” Pico just blinked those big eyes again and gave a small, secret smile. Like he knew something I didn’t.